Quick Thoughts On The New Apple iPad

The new iPad is starting to draw me in. Sure there’s no Flash support but I don’t play any of the Facebook games). it still doesn’t support Verizon Wireless usage, but no contracts are required to use the AT&T service. Perhaps that’s a marketing ploy to attract more customers to AT&T. I am seeing it’s very practical business uses.

It would have come in handy when I was at the Atlanta Gift Market trying to find a wifi signal to demo the social media tools with my iPod Touch. The larger screen would have also made it much easier to view what I was trying to show to the various vendors I was talking with.

Branding Expert Rob Frankel had the following comments about the iPad:

1. It’s likely aimed at the business market, where cloud computing
and SaaS technology is accessed by companies with large staffs.
Those staffs, like nurses, would carry an iPad rather than a
clipboard, updating a patient’s records on a central server.
Warehouses, shipping and just about any other highly-populated
business would benefit, as would teachers with lots of students.

2. No USB and no camera pretty much supports the business
deployment, since most businesses have security issues: they don’t
want photos or data leaked outside their domains.

3. In order to gain usage and acceptance, it would make sense for
Apple to launch the tool to the masses, including the capabilities of
download and e-book reading. This would integrate into the
employees’ lives outside of business.

4. Apple is probably looking to gain a foothold niche in business
the way it has dominated education for years. This would be perfect.

5. With the demise of printed publications, iPad may be the bridge
that brings Rupert Murdoch’s dreams into reality, by essentially
forcing everyone to buy some kind of device in order to read the
morning paper or magazine.

Bottom line: A nurse grabs her iPad and jumps on the train to work,
reading her paper or listening to downloaded podcasts/tunes. She
gets off the train, walks into the hospital, logs on to the central
system and begins her rounds, checking on patients whose records are
constantly updated in real time.

That’s pretty much the way I see it from here. That’s also why I
don’t think the mass consumers are going to want an iPad for a while.
Version 1.0 isn’t really for them.

I might have issues with the touch screen keyboard and the while the docking kit looks nice, it might be cludgy to carry around while traveling. I’m sure that will generate a lot of carrying case business.

Only time will tell. I don’t plan on being an early adopter of the iPad, unless of course Apple wants to give me one to test and review online for them 😉